SORRENTO’S landmark Stringers Store is being readied for its next century.
The two-storey limestone building, which changed hands in March, has always been a merchant’s store of some description, with new owners the Saba family very much involved in the vision and changes recently adopted.
“We stock all the essentials for holidaymakers, with a delicatessen and bottle shop alongside the supermarket,” manager Cosmo McIntyre said. “A cafe serves light meals and coffee for weary day-trippers to refuel after a long drive or the walk up from the beach.”
Stringers Store was established in 1896 as a classic part of Sorrento’s heritage and has continued to provide for the community ever since. “It was run for the past 25 years by the Fairlie family: Warwick, Helen, Nina and Lucy, and their team, and we thank them for their invaluable contribution in maintaining one of Sorrento’s iconic establishments,” Mr McIntyre said.
He said the store would continue to “celebrate the locals through promoting local producers and artisan food makers, and enhancing our curated wine store by focusing on organic wines and wineries of the Mornington Peninsula region”.
“The delicatessen, which is now double the size, offers the best local cured meats and cheeses as well as the best Italian small goods, European cheeses and imported specialty lines headed by ex-DOC Deli manager Devis Perondi,” he said.
Other valued staff members include Italian pastry chef Denis Quarto, barista Wayan Bell, Teresa Lee, Daniel Kenyon, Janine Hutson, and chef Steven Saffin.
“We have plans to range more organic produce and products with an added focus on health and wellness,” Mr McIntyre said.
“Our ready-made meals of soups, curries, salads and lasagnes – which have been popular with Sorrento families for years – will continue to feed them for years to come.”
He said the store was marketing a range of heat and eat organic snack foods, including pies, pasties and triangles, while Mr Quarto was baking bread, pizzas, arancini, and assorted Italian pastries and sweets.
“We have plans to re-commission the 100-year-old oven that baked bread for the whole of Sorrento back in the early 1900s, and for a pop up pizza restaurant,” Mr McIntyre said.
As part of its new direction the store has gone smokes-free under its new ownership.
First published in the Southern Peninsula News – 11 September 2018
